Russia has been accused of “dirty tricks” after senior Cabinet ministers were targeted with hoax calls from an impostor posing as Ukraine’s prime minister. A cross-Whitehall security inquiry has been launched after Home Secretary Priti Patel and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace both received calls.
The alarm was raised by Mr Wallace after he became suspicious during a ten-minute video call on Thursday, with the Defence Secretary publicly accusing Russia of being behind it. He ordered an investigation into the security breach but there are serious questions about Whitehall security after Ms Patel said the same thing happened to her earlier this week.
Mr Wallace said he became suspicious and terminated the call after “several misleading questions”. The PA news agency said Mr Wallace was put through to the video call which lasted around 10 minutes by officials, rather than being dialled directly on his phone.
